22 March 2011
Khartoum — The Sudanese president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir dismissed allegations made by the Sudan people Liberation Movement (SPLM) that he and his National Congress Party (NCP) are aiding the renegade militias in the South to destabilize the semi-autonomous government there.
South Sudan will join the league of nations officially next July after its citizens voted almost unanimously to become an independent state in a referendum held last January in line with the requirement of the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement (CPA) signed between the North and South to end more than two decades of civil war.
But violence has erupted in different parts of the South since the vote results were announced and endorsed by the ex-foes stoking fears that the new state will not be sustainable and a source of regional instability.
Last week, the SPLM Secretary General Pagan Amum produced documents attributed to the Sudan Armed Forces (SAF) detailing orders to arm rebels in the South.
Amum said that the plan for aiding Southern militias was under the direct supervision of president Omer Hassan Al-Bashir.
But the Sudanese leader on Tuesday denied the allegations saying that the NCP signed the CPA when it had the upper hand on the battlefield and is committed to implementing its terms for the sake pf peace.
Speaking at the military academy in Omdurman, Bashir said that the government in the North will not start any war and subtly warned the SPLM against seeking a military confrontation.
“Whoever initiates war, will be the first to suffer,” Bashir was quoted as saying adding that war will use up all the resources that should be devoted to development.
The Sudanese president described the South’s claims as “lies” and urged the SPLM to stop repeating them. He accused unnamed officials in the SPLM of having external agendas.
The SPLM has announced last week that it will suspend the post-referendum talks with the NCP but reversed its decision later following mediation by former South African president Thabo Mbeki.
But one of the contentious issues is the fate of the border region of Abyei which has witnessed one of the fiercest clashes recently that led to mass displacement.
The oil-rich area was supposed to hold its own referendum last January on whether it wants to join the North or South. However, disagreements between the SPLM and NCP on eligibility for voting stalled the process.
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) discussed the situation in Abyei on Monday after hearing from NCP and SPLM representatives.
Amum said he complained to the UNSC that the northern government in Khartoum is funding militias to destabilize Southern Sudan before it secedes. He disclosed that he asked council members to consider deploying a new peacekeeping force at the border between the two sides.
This request was previously made by SPLM chairman Salva Kiir but was met with lack of enthusiasm given the long borders and the rejection by the NCP.
The Sudanese ambassador to the UN Dafalla Al-Haj Osman refuted the SPLM’s position saying that the south always blames the north for its problems.
“Whenever there are problems in the south, they blame the north for that,’ he said, insisting that the south’s own opposing groups are responsible for the recent violence” the envoy said.
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